Crunch Time

Idle hands are the devil’s play thing.

I have had a busy, busy month! I’ve also had a very sad month. Spring break was awesome, but shortly there after, my grandmother went to the hospital. Unfortunately, she did not make it home this time. She passed away the last week of March. She was a classy lady, and she will be missed. 

Skip forward to April. As a grad student, I realized today that 4 major projects due in a span of 4 weeks. Gulp. Children, procrastination leads you no where. 

The other major change in my life is I moved into my own place with my little girl. It’s so nice to have my own space! As soon as school is done, I’ll be revving up my crafts, food, and diet blogging! 

Today’s meal:

Breakfast:
Advocare Meal Replacement bar (surprisingly very tasty!) 

Lunch:
Grilled chicken
Aspargus
Salad – Mixed greens, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, a boiled egg, broccoli and oil and vinegar
Cheesecake (bad, I know!)

Dinner:
Baked potato with light sour cream, Laughing Cow swiss cheese and chives
Peas

All in all, a good day eating. Tomorrow, I resume walking after a minor Achilles’ tendon injury. Working out is good, but gotta do it safely!

 

Challenge, Day 2

Today was easier in terms that I wasn’t as hungry. The key to this challenge is planning ahead, which unfortunately didn’t happen for me today. But I successfully made it through the day, and I even got some exercise! 

My menu today:

Breakfast
Spark Drink 
Herbal Cleanse drink 
Meal Replacement Shake 

Lunch
Salad greens
Boiled eggs
Carrots
Broccoli
1 tsp of oil and vinegar

Cup of strawberries

Snack
Spark drink

Dinner
Broccoli and cauliflower topped with shredded chicken in tomato sauce

Snack
Mixed nuts

I also got 45 minutes worth of exercise in: 30 minutes walk, 5 minutes warm up, 5 minutes cool down, and 5 minutes of jogging.

Here is a picture of me today, on day 2, of the Challenge. 

Maybe I should try to get a better picture some how. This one is a little dark.

Thanks for reading. After all this time of being unfit and depressed, I’m ready to move on. I found the quote below and I must keep this in mind. Unfortunately, I am one for instant gratification so I always fail at losing weight because I give up. Not this time. I must have patience! 

Determination, patience and courage are the only things needed to improve any situation.

 

2013, Please Be Kinder

“Life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed by the fire of enthusiasm.” – Norman Vincent Peale

It’s been a very long 13 days of 2013. Let’s recap:

- Broke up with my boyfriend/father of my child

- Started the year off broke from Christmas

- Totaled my car (on my birthday)

- Couldn’t stick to my cleanse diet because I was way too stressed out

Okay, so maybe that last one was my fault. However, it’s been a very rough two weeks. However, I’m optimistic. Here’s why:

- Jonathan and I needed to go our separate ways to be better people and parents to Brooklyn.

- I’m learning how to better economize my money

- No one was hurt in the car wreck. It could have been a lot worse.

So, in the midst of all the bad, there are a few glimmers of good things, or potentially good things, on which to hold. But I must beg 2013 to be kinder. I can’t take much more, at least not right now. I know that God will never give us more than we can manage. I just think He overestimates me. 

On the cooking front, I’ve made some excellent meals in 2013. Because I tried doing the 24 Day Challenge for Advocare, I have been eating very well. One of my favorites was Slow Cooker Chicken Burritos. I wish I had taken a picture. 

Slow Cooker Chicken Burritos

Ingredients:

• 3 – 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz. (No sugar added preferable)
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 package of low sodium taco seasoning
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 cloves of garlic

Instructions:

Place chicken in slow cooker. Pour remaining ingredients on top of chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until chicken is cooked. Serve over lettuce for a Tex-Mex salad or serve with beans, tomatoes, lettuce, black olives (ew!), salsa and avocado. 

I ate it with fat-free black refried beans, onion and lettuce. It was very filling, very yummy, very high in protein and low in fat! Definitely something to keep in mind for a future meal. 

At the end of today, I look back on the last 13 days and I’m ready for the future. I’m ready to be happy, I’m ready to be fulfilled, I’m ready to be satisfied within. So, tomorrow is Monday, and a new week, and I’m ready. I’m ready with a smile. 

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.

Advocare 24 Day Challenge

I’m currently doing the Advocare 24 Day Challenge, and I’m currently on Day 5. My intention was to blog every day, but between school, work, Lauren’s wedding, and watching Brooklyn, I have been far too busy to sit down for a moment, let alone blog. But I have a few minutes and I’d like to talk about the product, what I’ve experienced, and my overall thoughts on a trendy, expensive cleanse.

First of all, it’s not as hard as I imagined. 

Day 1 was very easy. For one, I was super excited about the cleanse so I was on an adrenaline high. The Spark Energy drink is amazing. Better than Starbucks, and everyone knows that I’m a Starbucks addict. In fact, I’m pretty sure my barista must think I’ve gone missing since my patronage at Starbucks has been non-existant this week. I drink the Mandarin Orange and Fruit Punch flavors. Very tasty. The fiber drink is okay. I mixed it with orange juice along with the water so it tastes a little better. But it was not as bad as I was expecting. Who likes fiber drink? Not this fat girl, that’s for sure. On the Cleanse, you drink a meal replacement shake in the morning. I have to say…THESE ARE AMAZING. I have tried Slim-Quick and other shakes in the past – they all tasted like chalk. I vowed never to drink another. However, these shakes are fabulous. Tasty, thick, and very, very filling. I drink one around 7 and I’m not even hungry until 10 or so. I will continue drinking these after the cleanse. That’s pretty much all you have to do other than take vitamins and an herbal cleanse pill at night. However, because it’s a cleanse, you have to watch what you eat. I’ve really, really tried to stick with raw foods. Today, I had a slip up at lunch, but otherwise I have done very well. And according to the scale, it’s working! I feel better. Less heartburn, tons more energy, and even though this is the most stressful week of my life, I’ve maintained some sanity, which I attribute to all the vitamins in the Spark drink. Today was the first day that I’ve craved bad food, but I’m thinking that may be because it’s Friday, and Fridays are usually wings and beer night! 

I’ll write again soon. Hopefully I’ll still be very optimistic! 

Why I Want to Lose Weight

I’m just going to say it: I suck at losing weight. I’ve been on WW a while, and I’m not losing a thing. It is because I just love food. I eat out all the time. I try to make the healthy choices, but let’s face it: bad food is delish! I need motivation. I need drive. I need to lose weight. 

These are my top 5 reasons why I want to lose weight:

5. Money. It costs to eat out, it costs to be fat. I need to conserve as much money as possible. 

4. Style. This is a very shallow, but very practical reason. I want to dress in fun styles. 

3. My looks. Again, very shallow. But who wants to date a fat woman? Don’t get me wrong – I do not want to be a stick – but I want other people to find me attractive. 

2. My health. When I was 16, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. This was due to genetics (thanks, Dad!) but it is something I really need to be aware of, and it’s something I don’t control as much as I should. High blood pressure and heart disease run in my family. I’m scared of cancer (even though no one in my family has had it) and a lot of cancers are preventable with diet. Lastly, health care costs a lot. I’d rather get in shape now, get healthy now, and hopefully avoid high costs. 

1. My daughter. I want to play with my daughter without being out of breath. I want her to be proud of me. I don’t want her to be embarrassed by an overweight mom. As shallow as this is, I want to be that cool that ‘cool’ mom that wears stylish clothes and takes my daughter on fun vacations. For her sake, I need to get healthy.

I need to post this list on the refrigerator. I need to remember this when I want to grab a burger at a fast food joint. I’m going to start over on WW, and this time I hope to do it right! I have reasons to lose weight. Most importantly, it will feel good to look good! Wish me luck!

Class and other ramblings

Class starts this week! I just read my first chapter for my theory class. We are reading Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People by Michael Strangelove. Tonight, I read the introduction. It is considerably out of date (copyrighted 2010) but Strangelove definitely attempts to address the cultural changes that have inspired YouTube and why this is important. I have to admit, though, that I am not a huge connoisseur of YouTube. There are a few videos that I have found entertaining, but I am not one of those people who spend hours watching random videos on a Friday night. But it is fascinating how media creation and consumption has changed drastically in the last 10 years. For this reason, I’m interested in YouTube from an anthropological perspective, and I’m very much interested in reading the case studies that Dr. Strangelove has chosen to address in this book. 

One thing I will try to do is write about about my classes. I’d like to become a better writer, and they say the only way to do that is to write, write, write! 

In that vain, I’m very interested in my 3D Modeling class. Class is on Thursday, but I checked out the syllabus today. Good things will come from that class! Lots of work, lots of projects, but I think it will be a creative outlet. I’m also taking a survey course about current social media. I love survey courses because I love discussions! I truly am excited for my courses this semester! 

Brooklyn is growing up so fast! She will be six months soon, and she started teething this weekend. As a result, my happy baby fusses a lot more! I hope she finishes teething soon. I don’t like seeing my little girl upset. 

 

What A Year

I haven’t logged into this blog in over a year. My life has changed drastically! 

First of all, I had a baby. Brooklyn Ann was born on March 8, 2012. She was perfect, and she is now growing like a weed. It’s been a crazy 5 months since she was born. Unfortunately, I had a bout of postpartum depression. To anyone who thinks this is just an excuse, you are wrong. I would go from happy to crying in 1.2 seconds. Brooklyn had colic, and she cried for weeks. This made things worse because I felt like a terrible mom! I felt worthless, like the baby didn’t love me, that I’d already screwed her up for life – it made loving her very hard. But things are all better now! She’s now a healthy, happy 5 month old! 

 

 

Another thing that is different about my life is I’m not sure where Jonathan and I stand with one another. We have broken up so many times over the last year. It’s hard. But I will give him credit. He’s really tried to be a good dad. He was there for Brooklyn’s birth, he’s seen her very regularly, and I think he loves her and would do anything to protect her.

This is my last week before my second year of grad school starts. It’s time to really start making decisions about where my studies are going in regards to that. I’ll have to start my thesis/project next year and I have no clue what I’m going to do for it!

I’ve also started Weight Watchers. I haven’t been doing a good job. It’s so easy to go out to eat and forget about recording points. But I must lose weight. I’m so tired of the baby fat and the pre-baby fat that I had accumulated over the last few years (thank you, beer!). Perhaps if I record my thoughts on this blog, it will hold me accountable. I need to lose weight, need to get healthy, for me and for my little girl. 

Vale!